From: "Ravindra" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: California blackouts and conservation Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 05:32:13 +0530 Dear Patrick The Dhabol Power Project of ENRON in India (in Maharashtra state) is another classic case of 'predatory supplier behaviour' of the big power companies. This company has managed a power purchase agreement with the state government at rates linked to the international prices of raw material and currancy (dollar) value. Within few years the State Electricity Board is running into huge debts - nearly 4000 ($ 85 million) million Rupees. While in my state (Andhra Pradesh), the Public sector electricity board purchases power at Rupees-1.25 ($0.03), the Dhabol Corporation's price is around Rupees 7.25 ($0.15) - nearly six times! There Many well-meaning people opposed this project at the very beginning, but the government went ahead. The My Indian colleagues working in Energy sector may throw more light on this issue. Regards, Ravindra, Lead India,Cohort-4 ----- Original Message ----- From: Patrick <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> O'Heffernan Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 11:31 PM Subject: California blackouts and conservation A note to LEAD people regarding the blackouts in California, USA , the energy crisis, and sustainable development. Some of you may have read or heard about the rolling blackouts imposed on northern California, USA, the location of LEAD's Development office. The blackouts, which are not unusual for many countries but unheard of in California since WWII, affected about 500,000 people for periods of 60 - 90 minutes on Thursday. LEAD's office was not affected but could = be if blackouts continue. The CAUSE: The immediate cause is the deregulation of the California energy market. Electricity and natural gas in California are = distributed through a combination of publicly and privately owned companies, the largest = being Pacifica Gas and Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison. PG&E is one of the world's largest energy companies, serving 25 million people in two countries, holding interests in utilities in a number of other countries, and operating, up until 3 years ago, one of the = world's largest inventories of power plants and distributions systems. The California energy market had regulated for decades, with the utilities required to sell power to whoever needed it, at a regulated price that included = discounts for poor people. They were also required to subsidize people who wanted to install insulation and energy saving devices in their homes. Profits were guaranteed at 18% of income. When Republican governor Pete Wilson took office 4 years ago, PG&E and the other companies saw an opportunity to increase profits - they convinced the Governor and the Legislature to deregulate the energy market, allowing them to sell energy at a price much higher than the cost of generation, stop subsidizing conservation, and allowing them to sell their power plants and pocket the money. They argued that the competition would result in lower prices.. It didn't. Prices rose gradually r as people stopped conserving. They everything went wrong. The companies that bought the power plants from PG&E realized that they could charge anything they wanted because PG&E and the other utilities had no supply alternatives. So they raised wholesale prices as much as = 200%. But PG&E and the other California utilities could not raise prices more = than 20% under the deregulation plan so they lost money - about $500 million a week. After losing $ 11 billion, PG&E could not borrow any more money = to buy energy with and some power plants refused to sell energy to them. Plus, with the lack of conservation, more people, and a cold winter, there was less energy to sell. Tuesday there was an energy shortfall, and we had the rolling blackouts. WHAT WE CAN LEARN. 1. Private markets work well for some things but not for a necessary commodity like energy. Government regulation is necessary to prevent predatory supplier behavior (the power suppliers were willing to risk the welfare and jobs of 40 million people and the sixth largest economyin the world to continue making obscene profits. 2. Conservation is absolutely necessary. When PG&E was paying people to conserve energy, supply met demand. California is a huge energy market. Los Angeles alone is so large it merits its own line in the IEA's world energy accounting. Even a 2% savings in energy use in California impacts world supplies, not mention global warming. If the developed countries don't reduce energy use - especially the USA - California will once again be the start of a very bad trend. 3. Sustainable economic development must include conservation of energy and alternative sources.=20 Whether it is a small village or a major city,energy has become a life necessity and wasting it can literally be life-threatening ( how would you like to be stuck in an elevator during a blackout?) Factories and hotels and water systems and other energy using projects that conserve and reuse and generate their own power with solar and wind will not = have to worry about being the "next California" 4. There is a sustainable business in energy conservation and alternative sources. This business is already several billion dollars a year. With these kinds of energy prices, demand will go up and up for everything from insulation to windmills. 5. There are some lessons here that can be useful to LEAD, and which will undoubtedly be taught when LEAD USA starts up later this year. The LEAD office in California rents space so we have to depend on our landlord for energy conservation. However, the building has power-saving lights and we are careful about wasting energy by leaving computers and lights on. At home however, things are different. I buy power from Green Mountain Energy, a small utility that generates most = of its power from solar and wind. I am now working with a contractor to install solar cells on my roof, and last week I replaced my = incandescent lights with power saving fluorescents where they would fit. Next week we insulate the attic. Patrick O'Heffernan Dr. Patrick O'Heffernan=20 Director of Development=20 LEAD International=20 www.lead.org=20 415-721-0738=20 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mulai langganan: kirim e-mail ke [EMAIL PROTECTED] Stop langganan: kirim e-mail ke [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive ada di http://www.mail-archive.com/envorum@ypb.or.id
